The Masked Singer / The Voice 2020 UK

In a move that I think is going to become a signature of 2020, namely 'throw enough stuff at a wall and something's gonna stick', ITV1 are starting two singing contests on the same night. First up is The Masked Singer, starting at 7pm, which is based off the American version of a South Korean TV show, where celebs sing while dressed like football mascots or those characters from It's A Knockout. Then straight after, it's The Voice UK because that's always brought exciting singing talent to the GBP's attention oh wait.

Also this looks like an advert for Monster Munch.
https://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Masked-Singer-season-3.jpg

OK I am going to watch this
I have an idea about Unicorn
I don't want to see someone guess them all correctly on social media though

I basically watched TMS because it was on immediately before The Voice, but it was way more entertaining than I expected. A lot of work has gone in to the production (Duck's costume aside which looks like something from a fancy dress hire shop).
I would be very surprised if Unicorn doesn't turn out to be John Barrowman. I thought it was him from practically the beginning of the intro video. Chameleon looks like an 80s Doctor Who villain (there was a DW character called Chameleon but he was a companion). Speaking of which, I thought that Hedgehog was Sylvester McCoy but whoever it is sounds too young.
Also, who's more annoying? Bruno Tonioli standing up all the time on Strictly, or Ken Jeong standing up all the time saying "I know who this is"?
Meanwhile The Voice is ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Although it was brutal with the guy with the guitar who got the long VT intro and then no-one turned around.

I thought Jake Shears.

Ken Jeong's bit is getting annoying.

I haven't watched any reality stuff for years so all the padding is excruciating. I'm approx 50% watching because of the costumes.

The Voice is good! It doesn't ever "(bring) exciting singing talent to the GBP's attention" but I don't care about that.

I liked the bit where Davina was on the receiving end of a "And the winner is... going to be revealed after this break!" for once, after years of her doing that to us on Big Brother.

xxp The padding is pretty much par for the course on ITV1 reality shows - an hour and a half programme that could have been edited down to one hour.

Monster is an Olympic gold medalist - it'd be funny if it were tiny Mo Farah inside that huge costume. Fox looks like a Goldfrapp fever dream - the video intro clue about the East End was a bit obvious - Letitia Dean?

Tree is so Peter Crouch.

Tree obvs a footballer - I wonder how many times he hit the wood as a player? haha lol oh *gets coat* Pharaoh isn't Tony Blair. This show is a lot more fun than I thought it'd be - the low expectations for the celeb singers performances makes the occasionally bad singing more tolerable than on X Factor Celebs.

The previews/ads are trying to have it both ways..

"Oh is it Elton John? / Helen Mirren/ Idris Elba?"

These people are not on this show.

They'd want too much money, for a start.

Exactly.

I can confirm I am not a singing tree

— Peter Crouch (@petercrouch) January 5, 2020

Fair enough

So, is anybody talking about The Voice now?

We have to trudge through several weeks of blind auditions to get to the weekend where they suddenly get rid of half of the singers. For the moment, no-one's stood out.

The Masked Singer: it looked like the panel were having to work hard to look enthused. It didn't feel exciting.

The Voice: Of the many singing shows, I quite like this: there's a warmth and a decency. No-one ever seems chosen for being comedy awful and there sometimes seems to be genuine regret (that no-one turned around). I know I'm not the target audience but the panel doesn't work for me. Olly Murs is worse than Ricky Wilson!

Ken acts almost like someone's writing his gags for him. Davina looks enthusiastic but we've seen her do that over the most woeful BB shit. Rita Ora's thinking the whole time that she'd rather be back on The Voice? Wossy is the only one who I can genuinely believe wants to be there, because right now his ITV1 chat show is doing well, so he doesn't really need to be taking an early Saturday evening gig. Whether or not any of the panel give a shit, I still think it's a good show - although as mentioned above the padding kills momentum.

Olly is way less annoying than I thought he'd be - he's still plenty annoying though. I always thought that Ricky was a bit crap as a mentor, no matter how sincere he might have been. will.i.am has dialled back the enforced wackiness over several series - at the start he was unbearable. He'll still take your favourite act and do a stupid collab in a moment though. Meghan it's too early to tell. If Tom Jones wasn't on this show I'd be much less interested in watching - the year he was absent and replaced with Paloma Faith (perhaps not surprisingly the last year it was on BBC before the move to ITV) would have been terrible if it hadn't been for Boy George.

Tom Jones is interesting because he's "properly famous" - the sort of famous that your family would want you to *choose him* even if your FAVOURITE POP STAR IN THE WORLD EVER! was Meghan. It adds interest. Ricky was entertaining because almost no-one was ever going to actively choose him. I could imagine that someone would think "There's no way will.i.am will be interested in me but Ricky might be my new best mate."

Like with Wossy, Tom doesn't need to do this, so I assume that his motivations are less driven by business (the vertical brand that is will.i.am) or a need to keep a career ticking over between albums (Meghan - first album in four years due this year / Olly - at his current rate his next album won't be out until the end of this year).

Gah I was so close to guessing that. The pronunciation of 'through' in the second song was winding me up. Think I wasn't expecting a 'professional' singer.
I can't really hear the vox clearly in the big songs, which may be intentional?

For all the panels talk last week about him being an athlete, I wasn't expecting it to be him.

Yeah I'd resigned myself to giving up as I don't know what any athletes sound like.
Also I've mixed up which character had which clues since last week.

They did TMS in Aus last year and it was excruciating - the singers were all C grade and when revealed, half the judges would be like "wait, who?". Which, if you have Lindsay Lohan as a judge is gonna happen regardless I suppose.

They were going out of their way to not say "Charlotte Church" this week.

xxp some of the clues seem to contradict clues from last week. Duck speaks Italian and Spanish now?

xp the UK version is about half professional singers, half celebs who can sing pretty well, and Pharoah. It was a surprise to hear his singing voice in juxtaposition to the costume. Good job he got voted off in the first week as that would have worn thin very quickly. This show would be worse than X Factor Celebs if none of them could sing.

Just gave it two minutes out of idle curiosity because the costumes are lovely jesus christ I did not need to hear Teddy Sheringham sing

Apparently neither did the panel because he's been voted off.

I particularly like TMS because there's no pretence that they're going to find the next Little Mix or One Direction. Unlike The Voice, which is all serious and earnest about finding the next big star (which they never do), combined with this bland daytime TV aesthetic (especially the VT on the boat, and oh and that's not the first time Tom's worn a captain's hat)
https://igifineart.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/tj010.600x1000_q85.jpg

lol at the guy who was prepared to throw his band under the bus to get famous, but then none of the coaches turned around

TMS unmasking was a surprise tonight. She looked sad to be out this early, would have been a deserving series winner.

be even sadder when it turns out she's lost to Ed Balls or something

or cee lo

Would've thought the audience would be voting for who they most want to see unmasked rather than who 'deserves' to win

Don't think so, they have previously unmasked the ones who can't sing that well.

yes, although iirc one of the good ones was in the 'bottom two'.

Octopus?

Joel Dommett - because Rylan would rather present Ready Steady Cook.

I thought Jake Shears.

― kinder, Saturday, January 4, 2020 11:38 PM (four weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

cough cough

I said this from week 1!

Totally gutted I didn't get Duck. She's always been someone whose voice I've been fascinated with but never guessed. Kind of a mix between steely wee girly and gravelly older soul. I blame the waddly costume.

Surprised how much I'm enjoying this show! Except for Rita Ora

Like, I'm pleasantly surprised it's not all "someone from Made In Chelsea" - they're all well-established people in their fields/genres

Davina said that Duck was Skin a couple of weeks ago. Unicorn has been pegged as Jake Shears for a while now. I said upthread that I'd be surprised if it wasn't John Barrowman, but after a few weeks of performances I'd been moved over to the "It's Jake of course it is" side.
I get the feeling from Rita that she's trying not very hard to pretend that she's excited by this. Maybe because she's sitting between someone who makes a living out of looking at least semi-plausibly excited (Davina) and someone who makes a living out of appearing semi-interested (Wossy).

Meanwhile on The Voice, are the auditions where no-one presses their button more brutal than previous years? Or is it because there are more people auditioning this time, so they're not showing any of the crap or even mediocre acts?

xp it's unusual to see a celeb based reality show that isn't mainly people from reality shows - see the last few I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here's.

No-one guessed Jake Shears until a week or two ago so I'm claiming this one.

did Davina really guess Skin previously?

I think so.

I just skipped through to check - she basically says Mel C every time. No mention of Skin by any of them!

I wonder where I heard that Duck was Skin? Because apart from this thread and watching the show, I haven't been watching/reading anything else about TMS. Although I'm aware of Skin, mainly from Skunk Anansie, I never would have thought that she was Duck.

very odd to see skin in a small tent screaming about a baby drawing a swastika over furious punk rock then see her a quarter of a century later singing the song from titanic dressed as a giant duck, on ITV. Jake / unicorn was too obvious from the start, and his choice of song this time didn't work.

I love queen bee and hope to god she is Nicola Roberts and not someone shit. I will wager something she is not Ellie Goulding, sounds nothing like her. Think they got too close last week, so this time the clues were silly and their guesses ridiculous.

Worst one is fucking hedgehog, he may well be Michael Ball.

So basically Monster is cee-lo, and Octopus is probably Charlotte Church?

I don't understand how people are getting these so easily. They could be anyone on earth as far as I'm concerned. Although, not wanting to come over all Tuomas but I had never heard of Jake Shears before Saturday night.

I like this because they're mainly my-era people (I don't listen to much current stuff), and they've unmasked enough now for me to think I'll probably recognise them at least - whereas at the start as you say it could be literally anyone.

The Scissor Sisters were big in the early/mid 00s, I liked them a lot at the time. If anything the costume was too on the nose. He's the only one I've got so far.

Also apart from the non-singers, all the unmasked ones have been people with pretty distinctive voices which are proving to be really hard to place out of context (in fact even Patsy Palmer has probably one of the most-recognised non-singing voices in the UK, I would've thought). Kelis should've been more obvious. I'm expecting Cee-Lo to be Monster, but I don't think Charlotte Church is Octopus (did she ever actually do anything operatic? I thought she was a choir girl).
Darkness guy - they also had that big hit early/mid 00s and the Bells one seems to be accepted Christmas song canon now, although I mainly hear them regularly as the theme tune to Katie's Amazing Machines.
Fox I still don't know about. Someone Toyah Wilcox era?
Queen Bee I have been guessing Nicola Roberts for a few weeks due to the clues but - and I say this as somewhat of a fan - I don't think her voice is that polished and actually has a bit more character.
Octopus I'm kind of leaning towards someone European - before the operatics I thought maybe Lene from Aqua?
Hedgehog, I did think Michael Macintyre but don't think so now, or someone actory putting on an accent like Ralf Little? But yeah seems too stage-professional Michael Ball esque.

I'm trying really hard to stay away from any Twitter chat about this cos I want to guess for myself!

Rita Ora is mainly annoying me because she doesn't actually seem to know any singers' voices (although she got Kelis, so kudos). It's like "ooh the clue said 'fashion', it's Cara Delavingne", "oh they look athletic - Tom Daley". Lazy guesses.

I'm trying really hard to stay away from any Twitter chat about this cos I want to guess for myself

Probably a good idea. I looked at the twitter in the run-up to or just after some of the unmaskings and I was astonished by how many people were getting them right, even Darkness guy.

I watch it on itv+1 because my kids go to bed at 7.30 and have to completely avoid twitter because it will pop up in the trending topics straight away

Same here! Actually I record it and skip the ads/padding

I do my usual reality TV trick of doing other stuff at the same time.

No surprises in this week's one then...

"I don't speak French" suggests Bee is in fact Nicola Roberts.
Glad this is winding up next week!

Just one unmasked this week?

yes, i have committed too much time to this silly show, it was entertaining for a while but now I am basically done with it, glad it's a shortish series

queen bee's film was purposely telling us absolutely nothing.

two unmasked this week

Final on now.
Queen Bee - has to be (*gets coat to make escape from pun police*) Nicola Roberts.
Hedgehog - I think is Michael Ball but that's on the basis of not being able to think of anyone else, so I'm possibly wrong.
Octopus - no idea.

xxp certain elements of this show are irritating enough that I wouldn't want to watch much more: "I know exactly who it is", whoever's writing Joel's crappy puns, the padding, the number of commercial breaks

Queen Bee - has to be (*gets coat to make escape from pun police*) Nicola Roberts.

boooooom !
lets hope this gets her back in the game.

I got that one. Gave it away for sure with the Cinderella's Eyes ref.
Think I'd be better at this in general if I knew anything about West End stuff.

Nicola was genuinely amazing, not a performance I ever expected on such a silly show. Yes, hope this means she is putting out records again, it's been a while!

Oh and what in fucking hell was Octopus's choice of song tonight? As soon as it started I knew she would be out, what a bizarre choice.

"Please don't vote for me, I'm Katherine Jenkins" wasn't it?

Notice no one itt got Hedgehog but literally every other Jason Manford fan (yes, I'm one too) on social media knew it was him. Also, it's his social media that made me aware of this show in the first place.

I was like "It can't be, he's on bbc1 right now"

Obviously that's pre-recorded, I don't mean that.

I was like "It can't be, he's on bbc1 right now"

Obviously that's pre-recorded, I don't mean that.

Doing "First and Last", I see. I really hope they bring that to Britbox US because it looks like a lot of fun. Also, according to Manford "The Masked Singer" was taped last September.

I've just finished watching the second (of three) of the Knockout episodes of The Voice and it's really tough to call who is going to go through to the next round. You could get a couple of series of X Factor out of this lot.

And here's the weekend where they drop two thirds of the acts. If X Factor had that level of attrition, it'd be over in three weeks (there's an idea).

I know it's the US version, but this performance was INCREDIBLE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-5qRTeuX8w

do you know who it is? (Not been following any of the US ones)

Twitter seems to think it's Leann Rimes.

I want to know...

I still have no idea how people are getting these. Checked Twitter in the run-up to tonight's reveal and literally dozens of people got it right. I guess I'm not the show's core demographic.

I had no idea who Alien was, it was a complete surprise. Sophie Ellis-Bextor, an actual professional singer being voted off first is a step up from last year. Clearly there's a bit more a of budget this time.

Also having this kick off on Boxing Day is a genius bit of scheduling.

Have been looking forward to this! Can I ask that any Twitter/tabloid speculation is kept off this thread as I like to work it out myself (and spoiler tags don't work on my phone)? Obv I won't look at the thread before watching each tho.

My husband got this one right in about 3 seconds. Alien has a v distinctive singing accent normally which I think was being disguised a bit.

No obvious comedy Ed Balls type so far as far as I can tell?!
Still clueless about the others.

There's another 6 singers next week so still the potential for comedy lol terrible singers, but I think it's unlikely as they seem to be spending slightly more money on this year's series (Joel Dommett has 'bodyguards' this time like Nick Cannon in the US series and the costumes seem more complex too).

Did the 'voted off, last chance' ones have to do a second song for the judges last time? Or was that after the first round.

I don't think so, it's slow enough as it is!

We watched this via YouTube which meant it took about ten mins in total. We were also spared Rita Ora who we already all knew was awful but her coronavirus antics have made me really loathe her

Swan is bugging me, I can only hear it being Shania Twain. Wonder if it could be someone like Anastacia or even Tiffany? Can't be bothered remembering all the clues.

The single most annoying thing about this show is when the mystery singer makes a pun based on their name and the panel treat it like a clue. E.g. Dragon saying 'drag on' and they think it's related to drag.

Dragon sounds like a comedian or something, I can't shake the image of David Cross but it won't be him

One of them acted and sounded like Mick Hucknall

ugh...
my hurried and not entirely serious suggestions for the 6 we've yet to see:

Lana Del Rey
Eric Cantona
Paris Hilton
Rory Stewart
Dappy from N Dubz
Morrissey

I'm calling Lenny Henry for Blob!

I said Romesh when it was still doing the intro.

I think Grandfather Clock is Terry Venables, he used to be a singer iirc.

Nah, too tall I think.

Yeah, we all had Romesh in mind, but about a quarter in I got Lenny, and it never left.

lol will.i.am fucks up his first line in the group song

Ha, I thought Lenny Henry at the time, it sounded just like him. Had recently watched two things with him in though so thought perhaps I was influenced by that!
I guessed David James for clock just from the clues but don't really care.

Didn't get the revealed one at all, thought it was someone like Sarah Parrish

Might be because they kept going on about Jon Thompson last series, but I thought him for Bush Baby.
Viking has really thrown me.

I thought it was Jamelia, just because I remembered a story about her stealing toilet roll from George Michael's house.

I think Bush Baby is Craig Charles. I don't have many other thoughts, other than that I'm still fuming they threw SEB off because I think a whole series of her doing disco classics would have been ace.

Mates of mine think Professor Brian Cox for Viking, even though none of the clues make sense.

Grandfather Clock is 100% David James

Actually, I've just remembered they were playing Terry & June music, so it's probably Terry Venables.

surprised Seahorse picked such a weak song (although I've no idea how much input they have).
glad they are trying to hide their accents a bit more.
Apparently in the first ep the judges made correct guesses re Alien but it got cut

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/sophie-ellis-bextor-the-masked-singer-b1779859.html?

I'm still fuming they threw SEB off because I think a whole series of her doing disco classics would have been ace

I assume you've seen her Instagram Kitchen Disco series

There was a specific word that Harlequin used that made me think it was Gabrielle.

Viking separating out King seems too much of a clue and if there's a visual clue too from his appearance could it be yer man King from the Hairy Bikers?

Gabrielle is a solid guess

I assume you've seen her Instagram Kitchen Disco series

Yeah, which is why I thought more of that sort of thing on prime time while dressed as a giant alien would be fun.

Last night was the first time I watched it. Have caught up with last week and confused by most of them or there are too many options.

Since S1 is on ITV Hub I am wading into that since I only really know who the winner was and having seen her intro VT I would never have got it as there were *no* clues in it. It's totally her voice though.

I wouldn't have gotten this week's one, no idea she was that good at the singing. Kind of a shame she went.
I *did* think of the relevant movie when those clues came up AND I said that 'guessed' was David Gest.

Sheridan Smith is a good guess for Sausage, but the '2 pints' clue seemed too straightforward for this stage - they do seem to stick to very obscure clues at the early stage (although I think they mentioned S E-B's album title, not that I got it from that). E.g. no obvious Stenders clues for Swan.

Dragon is baffling me.

Since Mick Hucknall was mentioned I'm sure I heard his Radio-2-omnipresent voice in both Robin and Badger (I don't think either of those is him though? - possibly Mark Owen or similar for Badger?)

Watching the extra show thing in ITV hub, it's painful but they do say that the celebs choose their costume. And they try not to put the obvious clues early on. Yes I'm bored.

My Dragon guess is Sue Perkins. I'm wholly behind the Sheridan Smith guess for Sausage.

Swan is bugging me, I can only hear it being Shania Twain. Wonder if it could be someone like Anastacia or even Tiffany? Can't be bothered remembering all the clues.

― kinder, Wednesday, December 30, 2020 11:17 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol I forgot I said this. I meant 80s Tiffany though.
Last week I said there was no way Seahorse was Mel B.

I was pretty sure it was one of Kimberley Wyatt/Ashley Roberts and was convincing myself they were dancer's legs during the sing-off.

Was sure Robin was Naseem Hamed last week but now clueless.

Was sure Sausage was Stacey Solomon but Sheridan Smith is as good a guess.

Totally want to say Badger is Carl Fogarty just because of the bike gear and the hat with corks pointing to I'm A Celebrity but it seems quite unlikely.

We were thinking Olly Murs for various blokes this week, and Sheridan Smith for various females.

OK back next week then.

It is a testament to how much I enjoy the general concept of this show that I am willing to tolerate both Joel Dommett's general rubbishness and the entire existence of Rita Ora.

Judicious use of the ff> is key

again I cannot recommend enough just watching the performances on Youtube and having the whole thing done in ten mins

Oh yeah, I record and ff, but still occasionally listen to the insanity from the panel. Can't say I'm missing Ken Jeong in any way.

Between TMS and The Voice last night there was about 70 minutes of content, with the rest being filler and adverts. TMS's VTs are at least more tolerable because they are 'clue packages' (what a stupid term) for the game of trying to figure out who the singers are (I figured out who Swan was based on the pub in her last VT). The VTs on The Voice are far more filler-y though - like I don't care that your family support you, good for you.

Joel Dommett's general rubbishness

Whoever's writing his puns for him hit the first reasonable one ever with "hedge of your seat".

Bear in mind they use stand-ins for the inserty bits.

My sister's friend does various walkons for "Eastenders", etc. She got offered the part of "Seahorse" but got bounced in favour of someone else. Then that person got sick so they asked her back on the day of filming (last Nov). Then the other person got better. Obviously she was gutted as the fee was pretty decent.

Anyway, my sister (who hasn't watched the show) told me all this yesterday but had suggested that the job involved the dance on stage and the vocal was effectively mimed to. Like, everything except for the unmasking. I told her that was highly unlikely...

omg, lockdown has driven me to watch s4 of the USA Masked Singer from last Autumn (I didn't bother with earlier ones as looked up the contestants and didn't know half of them). I'm trying to watch on Youtube while avoiding the 'unmasking' headshots and video titles. Anyway, the clue packages are shite, like bad Flash animation, but there's a double one - 2 owls in an egg wtf. I know who Sun is but no-one else (yet).

End of ep 2, someone unmasks themselves, it's a shambles, not sure if scripted or not. Will watch more anon.

4 eps in to the US version and there have been two performances completely cut out of Youtube, presumably due to copyright. The US panel don't get a say in who goes, it's all audience voting. But I've just realised there might not even be a studio audience, think the audience reaction shots are stock shots from previous series? So dunno how that all works. Ken Jeong is even worse on this version.

With a few exceptions, the UK's costumes are better and generally our show is more theatrical.

The previews/ads are trying to have it both ways..

"Oh is it Elton John? / Helen Mirren/ Idris Elba?"

These people are not on this show.

― Mark G, Sunday, 5 January 2020 20:59 (one year ago)

No Rita, it's still not going to be Idris Elba.

The UK one tonight felt like a refreshing glass of water after the awful US ones.
Wasn't really expecting this one but glad he's out.
Viking has this really flat voice and I can't shake the feeling it sounds like Frankie Boyle although if it is him he's hiding his accent very well.

Btw I got to ep 5 of the US one and they introduced a whole new 5 or 6 characters, and so far most of the unmaskings have been people I am not familiar with. I'll slog away with it though.

I got totally wrong footed by the clue package and thought that Grandfather Clock was Peter Shilton. But on the other hand that's now four singers out of four who have had hit singles.

Loads of Abba references with the Bush Baby clues.

They're definitely putting accents on when speaking and singing. Which would make me think it was someone like Rob Brydon but none of the clues point to him.

Blob is definitely Lenny Henry.

Rita saying that she thought Harlequin might have been Des'ree, and the clue that she wrote about horror themes, make me think that could be right. After all, she was the one that said "I don't want to see a ghost
It's the sight that I fear most
I'd rather have a piece of toast"

No idea about Viking at all, but he's one of the weakest left.

I think Blob is Romesh Ranganathan, as he used to be a teacher and a classroom featured in a VT from a previous week..

I thought that last week, but once I thought Lenny Henry I could just hear his voice all the time. Plus he once did Word Up with a light-up, flashing codpiece for Comic Relief.

None of the clues point to Lenny Henry but I still think it's him.
Aldo, I think your earlier Gabrielle guess is right.
Once I think of someone that's even vaguely likely to be right I can't unhitch that from my mind.

I've changed my mind - tonight's performance makes me think Blob is LEnny Henry. I don't know why there are so many school references in the VT, other than he played a headmaster in a TV series years ago.

Morten Harket became bookie's favourite for Viking this week. That was either top trolling of them or a double bluff.

I'm leaning towards a double bluff.

I only caught a snippet, but is Len trying to get eliminated?

Also, whoever bushbaby is - I did think Gregg Wallace as a bluff with the aussie accent.

Oh ffs Dragon isn't RuPaul - how would he fit in TMS with the several dozen series of RPDR that are running concurrently?

I did wonder if dragon was Dawn French, but she wouldn't be put on the same show as Lenny H. Then again Jennifer Saunders, maybe.

RuPaul is also very tall, which Dragon isn't. Michelle Visage seems likely if going down that route.

Everybody has been a bit pitchy at times tonight.

Might be because they kept going on about Jon Thompson last series, but I thought him for Bush Baby.
Viking has really thrown me.

― kinder, Saturday, January 2, 2021 9:12 PM (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Called it!
As soon as he launched into the Fast Show theme I was certain. Weird they didn't get it considering how hung up they were last series thinking Jason Manford was John Thompson.

Viking is hiding his accent. (There was a bit on the extra show about how they coach them to disguise some of their idiosyncrasies).

I stuck with the US Masked Singer to the end and it wasn't worth it; I didn't know who anyone was. There's a spin-off show called the Masked Dancer.

Blob's song started off something like "Holiday Inn" - didn't LH do all those Premier Inn ads? It's him definitely though because it sounds exactly like him. I'm still waiting for a reference to Christmas classic film Bernard and the Genie.

wow Joel's gag writer is really phoning it in this week.

Also Alan Carr joins the panel for some unknown reason.

Completely heard that Dragon performance as Sandi Toksvig, for no real reason.

The US one had random 'guest panelists' who would also start off as masked. I guess it's just part of the format and another distraction from the actual singing.
Would never have got Viking! I think it's a blatant cheat to do your own song though because I would immediately discount that person!

Dragon sings a bit too well to be a non-singer/stagey person I think? I really dunno though. Semi-final next week so at least 2 going I guess.

I'm calling Lenny Henry for Blob!

― Mark G, Saturday, January 2, 2021 8:03 PM (four weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

I know, so did everyone else. But, I was definitely first (about a minute into his first song)

Dragon is 100% Sue Perkins. Though I have seversl mates who are convinced it's Sandi Toksvig.

Incoming name drop - I was watching it last night while on a Zoom call with a person who was named as a suggestion who is flatly denying it. I reserve the right to pretend I knew it was them all along if it turns out to be correct. They insist it's not them.

ooh, you tease...
was it a potential Dragon, or one of the others?

It was Rita Ora that said it, so obviously it's not her.

Yeah, given aldo probably saw us having a conversation on FB as she doubled down on "it's not me", he's bang on. A potential Dragon.

Bizarre idea, her being a judge 'and' on stage in a costume at the same time...

I am not friends with Rita Ora.

Who is? (now..)

Going by the clues, Harlequin is Heather Small from M People. But it doesn't sound like her.

Points to ailsa!

(and our Alice)

Yes, well done!

Badger sounded awful on that second song, why would you choose that? And sounded slightly Midlandsy towards the end.

I can now reveal that my non-Dragon friend is J3nny Ry4n, as guessed by Rita last week (didn't want to say in case it did randomly turn out to be her and I looked stupid, even though I've remained convinced by Sue Perkins for a month. She's probably Sausage now I've said that)

Curveballs at the end there! I swear Badger did sound Midlands but he fooled me with his weird Brit mashup accent. Nicola Roberts is queen of this show!
I was still convinced Sheridan Smith was Sausage due to the 'meat free' clues which instantly made me think of 'can she have wafer-thin ham, Barbara?' but I concede that was probably a reach.

Dunno I could see...

"Meat free was a reference to when she played the vegan gf in the royle fam"

..

I'd been convinced it was Sheridan Smith all series, but swung to Jessie J tonight when they started sounding like a proper singer rather than a show-tune belter. Didn't think Joss Stone at all.

Nicola Roberts was a brilliant addition to the panel, but far too knowledgeable and sensible to be considered for a longer-term role.

Nothing this series though has amused me more than Rita seeing through the bluff of Viking singing Take on Me and plumping for Ben Adams from A1 though.

Ha, yeah

That was a funny reveal, although obviously beaten by Sausage because the entire panel were standing there with their mouths open.

btw, turns out I have no idea what Joss Stone looks like, because I was a bit like Rita when she turned round and I was all "huh? That's Joanna Page from Gavin and Stacey?!"

I know this thread is pretty much solely about the masked singer, which i don't watch but i do watch the voice because my mum likes it. I have a question about tonight's - Anne Marie chose a great Scottish guy for her final three but he wasn't in her final three in tonight's show but I wasn't watching closely enough to realise he was missing. Was his absence explained?

There's another semi-final next week with 12 more acts - 3 per coach.

Ah, I see! Thanks, snoball.

I've never really understood the arc of this show. 10-12 weeks of build-up/auditions and then slash and burn in the space of 3-4 episodes. It doesn't seem to resolve in a way that makes much sense.

It's always seemed a bit odd, even from the very first series on the BBC. Since there's no X Factor or Britain's Got Talent this year I thought ITV would stretch out The Voice by making the eliminations more X Factor-like but aside from removing the Knockouts round this time there's no difference. For most of the singers we get to hear their audition, a bit of rehearsal room VT, their Battle duet and then their semi final performance if they get that far.

Also I'm surprised that Adeniké and Midé were eliminated while Benjamin Warner went through.

The fake audience noise on The Voice is especially disengenous this year since there isn't a live audience.

I've no idea why they didn't turn the final eight into two shows, eight then four, the show's live part is already too rushed and it's a bit of an insult to those who were just quietly eliminated, albeit by public vote. will.i.am was well pissed off at the end there.

I don't know why The Voice couldn't have been extended with more live shows this year. There would have been plenty of time - ITV's replacement for this year's BGT is The Masked Dancer, not exactly a show people are clamouring to see.

The fake audience noise on The Voice is especially disengenous this year since there isn't a live audience.

There's a musical theatre competition show on itv right now for celebs and one of the contestants, a TV doctor, said something sentimental about the process of being on the show and there was a fake audience collective "awwww" sound played after he said it!

Anyone watching this Game Of Talents nonsense on ITV1? Ten minutes of random gameshow bits and then 30 seconds of bizarreness (a guy whose hidden talent is being a yodeller),

Thought this bump might have been about I Can Hear Your Voice which apparently makes Don't Scare The Hare look like I, Claudius.

I gave up on Game of Talents (it seems very thrown together) and didn't even know about I Can See Your Voice. I just watched someone destroy 'Ride On Time' and it seems like a vehicle for comedians like Jimmy Carr to be snarky.

Apparently not even the death of the Duke of Edinburgh can stop the torrent of crap Saturday night gameshows.

On the plus side if anyone has an idea for a crap gameshow, now seems to be the time to get it made.

Watching I Can See Your Voice now and it really is a shocker. It can't decide what the format is - the contestants are totally sidelined and basically only exist to press the button for the answer the celebrities give - and is really a panel show where celebrities dunk on members of the public, often based on their appearance. And when the panel includes Alison Hammond maybe it's not a good look. But Paddy McGuiness gets to make a premature ejaculation joke in primetime. Hooray! Jimmy Carr makes a joke about Paddy looking gay because of his hair. Yay!

The editor of this wants shooting, they've got to the final two and one of them featured as not being able to sing in the intro sequence.

I take that last comment back, she was dubbed with someone else's voice in the intro scenes.

I caught the last half hour, and the only enjoyable aspect was the aplomb with which the bad singers sang badly.

Made myself watch a bit of the first episode just to confirm I didn't dream that this concept is actually a thing on the telly.
(Got a bit more into it than I thought but really nothing needs Paddy McGuiness AND Jimmy Carr) (or "or")

The Masked Dancer starts on ITV1 at 7pm tonight. Honestly have my doubts about whether this will be worth watching at all and it's certainly going to get far less viewers that Britain's Got Talent but at least it doesn't have Jimmy Carr being a nobhead. This clip's from the US version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O2LhIwb6do
The clue package makes it super obvious who Disco Ball is but spoilers Disco Ball is Ice T.

Might give it a shot but can't see it being any good - relying only on clues is boring

It's mildly diverting, a lot of work's gone into the costumes, some of the dancers are putting a lot of effort into getting across the idea that they're a llama or whatever. And it's nice to see a primetime TV show that doesn't rely on celebrities being snarky wankers to random members of the public. But the standard ITV padding and particularly going to a break before announcing the result of a vote is annoying, possibly enough to stop me watching this completely.

Also whoever's writing Joel's puns clearly got fired from their previous job as a Christmas Cracker Joke Writer.

I've skipped through most of it, it definitely loses something without the musical element. Don't know why the person who went out went out, they were very good.

The panel are saving dancers based more on their costumes than their dancing.

Yeah, absolutely. Except Zip, which is the crappiest costume of them all.

The crappier the costume the more likely that person is a professional dancer? Zip is a styrofoam head and a jumpsuit. I'm going to call them as the eventual winner now.

I skipped through until the reveal from last night and to be fair, that was a good pick and in theory guessable. Still think it's a bad concept compared to the singing one; I have no idea what most people dance like yet I know what lots of people sound like (and that's still tricky!)

What an utterly bizarre show this is, even compared to the singing version. I was originally against the idea of them speedrunning through the entire series in a week and change, but they may as well since there's no way of figuring out who everyone is based off a singing voice (VT voices are processed so much it's impossible to tell). Tonight's unmasked dancer, it makes total sense but I'd never have guessed that was who it was. The clue packages are no help and the dancers could be anyone who can physically pull off the moves and is the same approximate height/build (and even then the costumes can disguise that).

Yeah, it's absolutely compelling and completely pointless at the same time. At least Rita Ora isn't involved. Unless she's under one of the masks, which wouldn't surprise me.

John Bishop looks and sounds like that middle manager at work who you're not exactly sure what he does.

the dancers could be anyone

As if to prove this, yesterday afternoon before the final I was thinking about who they might get as dancers for a second series, and amongst others I thought of Bonnie Langford without realising that we'd been watching them for the whole of this series.

All the crap and padding was almost worth it for that reveal!

May as well drop ITV's Walk The Line into this thread. Even with each episode being only an hour, there's still a lot of filler.

So much filler that in the end I didn't care. Ella could have won the whole thing but was pursuaded to tap out for £40K. Then someone else wins the half a million?

Series 3 of The Masked Singer starting now. Joel Dommett is cribbing Dermot O'Leary's entrances from X Factor and it's like watching a kid coughing on a cigarette trying to copy their older brother. Usual panelists including RIta Ora unfortunately. ALso fittingly for a show with costumes like this, the first singer is Mushroom.

ah thanks, hadn't realised it was back. This daft nonsense is just what I need right now.

Shame that they voted off Chandelier, one of the good singers, instead of Doughuts, the worst of them.

Yeah they do that quite often. I guessed the 'head' clue a bit too late. Didn't sound like her at all! I expect she was going to 'reveal' that later on.
Husband has a good guess for Mushroom I reckon.
How is Rita Ora on this and how does she get any of them despite not knowing what anything or anyone is called?

I'm fairly confident on Lionfish.

By which I mean I'm sure it's Craig Revel Horwood.

Firework is Sue Pollard I think.

Rick-rolled by a traffic cone...

Bagpipes I reckon is Danny Dyer or someone.
Rockhopper sounds really familiar, thought maybe a Europop person like Robyn but not.
Perhaps Alesha Dixon for Panda?

Panda is 100% Myleene Klass. Mo's I'm A Celeb spot was a good one and that's where the outdoors stuff comes in. We saw them cooking outside and she hosted a barbecue show, and did v/o work in the Igor movie hence the animated clue. But most tellingly she launched a failed kids' clothes range that had a panda theme.

Late here, and doing the correct thing which is watching two episode back to back eps and fast-forwarding past everything the panel say. I reckon Mushroom is Jenny Ryan, Robobunny is a Westlife or Boyzone type.

I also think Firework is Su Pollard. My mad guess is that Poodle might be David Tennant.

Mushroom is Jodie Whittaker.

I love the visuals and the joy of this but if I have to see Davina McCall's fake astonished excitement ever again I won't be responsible for my inactions

Oh Aldo I was trying to hear CRH as Lionfish so I didn't guess anyone else!
Clue was in the song title...

Why do they always keep the footballer types in way too long?

Sorry! A flat french hat next to a NYC taxi, sometimes called a cab, was the most contrived clue so far.

Don't think Firework is Su Pollard any more either.

They keep in the likes of Not Lineker because they're "entertaining".

I called Will Young earlier tonight, remembered to tweet a mate as evidence just before the unmasking.

My theory for Mushroom is that I'd thought of Jodie Whittaker earlier and one of the lies/truths was that the start of their career was a bit fizzy so I looked up her career and she was in a film called Perrier's Bounty and Perrier being fizzy water is exactly the kind of Ted Rogers bullshit they'd pull on this.

Lots of chatter last week about Jodie Whittaker, especially around the "big change in your life" clue what with her giving up the role this year.

I was going to make a 3-2-1 joke about these clues but ailsa beat me to it.
When Firework belts it out they don't sound like Su Pollard belting it out.
I don't know why they keep voting for Doughnuts - the worst costume and the worst singer by far.

The whole of Britain did a Partridge Shrug so big it could be seen from space at the reveal there

why are they keeping doughnuts in. i hate the audience

Poodle turning out to be the singer from Keane really sums up the level of this show for me.

Last year, "Sausage" had everyone excited. Really should have had an album ready and out, prior to reveal.

When the mask came off, everyone shrugged and carried on with their life.

The whole of Britain did a Partridge Shrug so big it could be seen from space at the reveal there

And again for Firework. Minorly worth it to see Rita fail to recognise her best mate though.

New guesses from me:

Rockhopper = Michelle Williams
Robobunny = Markus Feehily (calling him as the series winner after last night's performance)
Panda = Natalie Imbruglia
Traffic Cone = Aled Jones
Mushroom, I don't know. Still torn between Jodie Whittaker and Jenny Ryan, but have seen some fairly compelling evidence that the clues point to Charlotte Church.

I tink Traffic cone is Rob Bryden.

Mushroom is surely a proper singer?
thank god Doughnuts is out. Caught a clue "oh, 'n..." in the clue package so that cemented it.

hoping the rest are actual singers and not more actors/ sports people/tv presenters. it's kind of amusing to guess the odd one but I want to do it based on their voice!

I've heard both Jenny Ryan and Jodie Whittaker sing, and they're both very good. I'm fairly convinced by the evidence that it's Charlotte Church though.

It needs to be not-singers, though.

When the reveal shows a singer everyone’s like ‘yeah!’ Whereas otherwise it’s ‘hey wow you can really sing whodathoughtit!’

As I say, Joss Stone winning it last year has become incidental detail.

Series 1 won by a singer, 7 of the 12 were singers and three of the non-singers had done West End musicals.

Series 2 won by a singer, 7 of the 12 were singers and one of the non-singers had done West End musicals.

So far this year we've had 4 of the 7 reveals to be non-singers with no theatrical experience which suggests they're all recognised singers to come.

yep that's what I was thinking

So, would Rob Bryden count as a non singer? I mean, he's had a number one hit etc..

Yes, non-singer. Martine McCutcheon was also a non-singer despite #1 single.

Hmmmmm…

Anyway

I'd say if you could've heard them on the radio they count as a singer.

Oh I forgot that Glenn Hoddle also counts under that criteria.

In which case Teddy Sheringham and Alan Johnson in S1 and Sue Perkins and John Thompson are the only non-singers in the first two series.

Doesn't change anything for this series.

Glenn Hoddle doesn't count as a singer!

Of course he is! Diamond Lights got to #12, wasn't a novelty song and he was even on TotP! More than an in-character sitcom charity single, for sure.

My hmmm was related to, that Martine had made music that needed her to sing 'well'.

Hoddle/waddle would be borderline, but I'd classify them as not being 'character' or 'comedy'.

Rob Bryden has appeared on records singing 'as' 'Uncle Bryn' so he'd be a non singer by anyone's ticket.

Have been down a Youtube hole comparing voices of anyone I can think of. Robobunny is still throwing me but I think Mushroom could well be Charlotte Church

Finally called one right!

Yay you.

(Who else tonight? Just tuned in)

Ooh you got two

Yep, though the second one was a friend convincing me rather than me recognising them.

Please let's never speak of Joan Collins ever again

It's totally cheating to have someone that's already been on a Masked Singer! I did wonder why they were guessing Donny Osmond and Leanne Rimes.

Btw I watched all of 'the Masked Dancer' when that was on and had forgotten everything about it, including that Craig RH was one of the contestants.

I convinced myself Traffic Cone was Rob Bryson during the show. Oh well.

I just saw that Natalie Imbruglia has uploaded a new song to YouTube as of yesterday...

voice is v similar, the accent throws me, but in the video she sings in a kind of (non-Erinsborough) accent.

Her Neighbours outfit was in a VT earlier, and one of my friends reckons the Frankenstein clue relates to the "saw a man brought to life" lyric from Torn. Singing voice is almost certainly her.

Surprised Robobunny went out first, he was great.

think the last two were the only two I got this series!

Actually been having a chat with some pals elsewhere about the possible big failing of the studio audience vote format being that each audience is only seeing the contestant for the first time so doesn't have the narrative, hence why good singers without a gimmick go out early and why comedy turns stay in because it's the first time each audience has seen them and found them amusing.

(I assume the audiences change a bit between shows, I don't know how many days they film this over)

After that reveal, I'm all out of faith

Nothings right

The Masked Dancer on ITV1 now with The Voice straight afterwards.

do not understand the point of The Masked Dancer

It's mildly diverting Saturday evening entertainment that doesn't rely on dunking on members of the public. I was surprised that I enjoyed the first series so much. But this time it looks like ITV aren't broadcasting the entire series on consecutive nights.

I've recorded it to skip through with my kid. I also don't see the point at all.

The first series was fun when they showed the episodes on consecutive nights over a week and a half. But now they're showing one episode a week and it feels like there's a lot more padding and commercial breaks as well.
I tapped out of The Voice after the first audition. I just don't have the stamina for long drawn out audition stages anymore. I don't get why they don't edit the auditions down to a couple of weeks and then spread out the rest of the process a bit more. As it stands the show takes 6-7 weeks to pick everyone and then in one weekend they tell half of the singers to sling it.

Onomatopoeia?

do not understand the point of The Masked Dancer

1st series was played more as a novelty but this 2nd series I think they're going for more of a Strictly audience?

I've only watched the first one so far - skipped past at least half of it. loool at how random the person was! really thought it was someone else who'd already been mentioned in the show, at first.

Ive seen about 10 seconds, Onomatopoeia doing the "Can you guess who I am?" bit. I think it's Timmy Mallett.

Yeah, go on then: Timmy Mallett.

Shall we put Strictly in this thread since The Masked Dancer is basically aiming for 'Strictly but with stupider costumes'? It's also similar in that I can watch it while doing other things, even other quite involved things.

There is a Strictly thread somewhere. But I'm happy to go on record here at how much I am enjoying the idea of Jayde Adams and Karen Hauer breaking the minds of the kind of bellends who describe themselves as anti-woke by being two straight women in a same-sex dance partnership.

Matt Goss is a ridiculous human being, isn't he?

Unless there's a more recent thread this is the only Strictly thread I could find: Strictly Come Dancing--am I on my own here?
Last updated by me two years ago and then before that eight years ago.

I marvel at how much botox it must take to prevent Matt's face collapsing into a contemptuous sneer. It was bad enough in the Bros documentary but seeing him trying to keep it together on the live shows is going to be something.

just remembered, I guessed last week's unmasked dancer purely because of their voice which was distinctive even through the voice changer thing.

In every close-up on tonight's Strictly, Matt looked like he was about to go off ona rant. Who knows what'll happen when he actually gets voted off rather than just being in the bottom two.

Shirley claiming she'd have saved Kaye was absolute nonsense though, she forgot the entire routine in the dance off. Matt seems entirely baffled by the whole thing, and curiously unmusical for someone who has a big showbizzy Vegas theatrical career.

"You can't be wearing that jacket because you like it" - first time ever I've laughed at a John Bishop joke.

Channeling Mark E Smith there

My kid really hates Pearly King! How does he keep getting through?! It's pissing him off!

The Voice semi final - two hours of television that simultaneously managed to feel perfunctory. I disagreed with all of the coaches choices for the final four.

I don't usually watch Strictly but if you like your dancing shows utterly daft, this week's has a tango to the Dr Who theme, as well as dances to The Apprentice, Eastenders and Grange Hill themes

Don't forget dancing the Charleston to the theme tune to Blue Peter, which is a hornpipe and has it's own specific dance.

The concept of Couple's Choice somewhat abandoned to make Molly and Carlos "choose" a thing clearly neither of them gave a shit about and is absolutely not suitable for street dance

I don't like Halloween theme weeks (X Factor's being particularly woeful) but somehow Strictly manages to get away with it.
Meanwhile on The Voice, Tom's jacket looks like something Gary Barlow wore as an X Factor judge.

Watching the end of this I Can See Your Voice thing on BBC1, absolute dregs of UK light ents, and can someone please get Jimmy Carr properly cancelled.

Even for a show that started during the pandemic, and might have been given some benefit of the doubt for having been recorded under those circumstances, it was immediately obvious that I Can See Your Voice was a steaming pile. I guess the BBC continued with it because it's cheap to make?

throw enough stuff at a wall and something's gonna stick

Last night: Ian Beale and Mr Motivator in drag
Tonight: The Masked Singer I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here Special Edition

Followed by Matt Hancock and Chris Moyles eating bugs until mid December.

Tonight: The Masked Singer I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here Special Edition

The Masked Singer starts tonight at 6:30pm on ITV1 - another genius bit of scheduling to have this series start on New Year's Day to a captive audience.

A whole week before we see the other half of them?!

Gives me time to recover from all the commercial breaks and filler.

Knitting is Claire from Steps. I shall be back with more wrong guesses at some point.

Fleeting Annie Lennox vibes from Fawn. I will also be back with more wrong guesses...

I thought Alison Goldfrapp, but I'm definitely wrong.

Rhino could be Rylan as whoever is in that costume is definitely very tall. Probably not Russell Brand as he doesn't believe in wearing masks...

Judges keeping up their habit of removing a proper singer and leaving in the crap one who can't sing at all, I see.

"Well" was an excellent clue in hindsight.

Took us about two seconds of Piece of Cake singing to go "well, that's Lulu".

I'm very much on the Rylan/Rhino bandwagon. Fawn, I'm thinking Stacy Solomon. Not got much else yet for the rest.

Praying they get rid of Otter, not sure I can sit through that again.

Knitting = Claire from Steps?

Yeah, everyone seems to think so. She's the best from this half.

I have witnesses who can confirm I said Mel Gedroyc for Otter before the telly people did.

Jellyfish is way better than Knitting!

Having a duo just sing the same thing at the same time means you can't actually hear either voice very well so I wasn't too invested in Cat & Mouse staying in.

Last week's was unremarkable
I was getting fed up with this one, was hoping it'd be someone 'funny' enough to be worth the 'haha you are a terrible singer' schtick and was adequately surprised by the reveal.

I said Mel Giedroyc for Otter on Facebook and Twitter couple of weeks ago. I should do these on here too. Knitting is definitely Claire Richards. There appears to be a giant groundswell of opinion that Jacket Potato is Richie Sambora and I have been all over the other social medias insisting it's 100% Shane Richie and I will never stop laughing if it turns out they have identical singing voices.

Fawn is an Appleton - Natalie, I think.

I'm also buying Jellyfish as Amber Riley as suggested by Jonathan Ross in a rare lucid moment. I don't really get him enough but there's so much chatter about Rhino from his fangirls that I have to assume it's the person the internet says it is.

Phoenix is the one I can't get a handle on at all

ffs can they get rid of Otter this time?

Well still a 50% chance, come on!

Still, whatever happens more of this audience voted for Otter than for Knitting so they should probably not be allowed to vote on anything again.

Well I'm disappointed because I like her, but she should never sing again please.

re:otter

Still none the wiser on Phoenix. The internet seems to think it's Ricky Wilson, my current guess is Michael Sheen.

I forgot ailsa suggested Ricky Wilson and was concentrating on Phoenix being/ not being Michael Sheen. Then my kid noticed the ruby ring and I came up with Ricky Wilson. The song choices really threw me - I like that that was a deliberate choice and and suggested someone older. I guessed Rhino some weeks ago.

would never have got Fawn - don't remember All Saints as being that strong singers.
Jellyfish shoulda won!

Britain's Got Talent: Simon Cowell's chin implant makes him look like GigaChad.

Or rather, GigaChad's Mini-Me, as I rather unkindly thought on the bus home from work this evening.

The Masked Singer I'm A Celebrity Special. The first singer is Dunny, a singing toilet. Background music for the pre-performance VT was Salt'N'Pepa's 'Push It' and 'Ring Of Fire' by Johnny Cash. I wish I was joking.

i only just got round to watching last year's I'm A Celeb one. I don't have a clue who has or hasn't been on it so it was a bit lost on me.

Dunny was Joe fucking Pasquale. They should have dressed him in a deer costume.

Christmas one-off was quite good being a single ep. Got Sprout instantly (quite proud) probably because we have been watching him on some old tv stuff with my kids.
Sort of guessed Reindeer. was totally thrown by the guesses on Decorations, my other half guessed the same wrong person. Winner was a surprise. I think my viewing expectations have been drastically lowered over Christmas, ha.

Yeah, spotted Sprout and Reindeer straight away (Reindeer's singing voice sounded exactly like their speaking voice). Guessed correctly for Decorations then was completely swayed to the obvious incorrect option via my husband's guess which I couldn't shift, even when the cracker clue swayed me back to my original guess. Was nowhere near on Partridge and am only glad I wasn't watching live and posting here or Twitter and sharing my guesses on record.

It remains a really fun format, even if the panel are the most ridiculous people on earth and Joel's puns make me all murdery.

Stephen Fry hosting Jeopardy!, Graham Norton hosting Wheel Of Fortune?

That's the thing about watching The Masked Singer and The Voice (final on in about half an hour if anyone can raise a care), I get exposed to all these adverts and programme trailers I'd have no idea existed otherwise.

They do somehow appear to have got Dionne Warwick on dressed as a giant raincloud (will die laughing when it turns out to be Rita from Corrie).

So far our guesses are:

Maypole: Kimberly Wyatt or Jessie J
Cricket: Jay Blades or Danny John Jules
Bigfoot: Alex Brooker
Dippy Egg: Rory Kinnear or Simon Gregson or Matt Baker
Raincloud: Dionne Warwick
Rat:Maisie Adam or Kerry Godlimam

These are purely on the voice, the clues are worth nothing at this stage

Hope it's Dionne Warwick so Britishers can find out how she pronounces her name

Question: Will they eventually run out of slightly out-of-fashion celebrities? Like peak oil?

Like, how many Donny Osmonds and Biz Markies and Sarah Fucking Palins and George Santoses and Drew Careys are there? How many have NOT yet been on one or another of this general group of TV shows?

Are we headed toward a Trumpocalypse with Ivana vs. Donald Jr.?

Well, that was clearly contractual for one night only

Obviously the contract didn't include an agreement where Warwick dropped the choppy cadence for the unmasked performance of the song.

Like, we know who it is now, there's no need for her to continue disguising her voice like that.

Such a legend! amazing performance! but we're voting you off first, in favour of an egg...

my random guesses: Dippy Egg could be Jon Richardson. I always seem to guess Mel Gedroyc so I forget if she's actually been on it, but Rat sounds a bit like her.

Yeah, I'm convinced Rat is a comedian. I'm sticking with Maisie Adam for now.

Catching up with this now, either they rigged the audience vote or they actually preferred Rat to Weather, both options seem implausible tbh

Time to see who is voted off because the audience and panel liked their performance the least they're the second most expensive singer on this show after Dionne Warwick.

Joel Dommett is quite tall, so whoever Air Fryer is isn't short, but ffs Rita, it's not Ru Paul in that costume. He's six foot four.

Chicken Ceaser so obviously Brandon Flowers from The Killers that the panel have to earn their money by pretending it's just about anyone else.

I love it when I'm so catastophically and hilariously wrong.

Only solid guesses we came up with last night were Ana Matronic for Airfryer and Helen Skelton for Bubble Tea and Gabby Logan for one of the others (Owl?). Let's see how wrong we are.

From the singing voice alone I thought that Air Fryer was Tones and I, but the clue package doesn't support that. Although it didn't support Chicken Ceaser being who it turned out to be, either.

It's almost as if the clue packages are cynically designed to suggest to the audience that it's some hugely famous and expensive celebrity just to keep people watching.

it's pointless (ha) trying to make anything of the clue packages this early on. I'm glad they're so obscure, I like relying on the voice.
never would've guessed Chicken Caesar was him, had assumed he was a half- decent singer as he's had a Christmas album or something right?

thought Ruby Wax for Eiffel Tower in the first couple of seconds but sounded better than I would expect for her.

I still love it when someone in a ridiculous clumpy costume shuffles on and effortlessly belts out a total banger. If they shift it more in favour of the non-singers I'll be very annoyed!

also how many series on are we and they still try and guess clues that are merely puns on their costume eg Bubble Tea saying "pop", oooh maybe it's a pop singer

Good reveal last night - clues tenuous as can be, as always, but don't think anyone had spotted their identity.

yeah didn't guess that!

Last night's reveal was hilarious.

Yep, again I was nowhere near, was utterly convinced it was Helen Skelton.

Pretty sure Eiffel Tower is Tiffany, but everyone else is a mystery

Ahead of the weekend, I'm going for the following as ones I'm reasonably confident of:

Eiffel Tower is Tiffany
Bigfoot is Alex Brooker
Dippy Egg is Will Mellor

Could "Dippy Egg" be Ralf Little, as it's the sort of thing Jim Royle would have shouted at him? (I've not seen any of the shows so far)

Joel Dommett needs better gag writers. They can't even manage a decent egg pun, and most of ILX could do that in their sleep.

think you're right about Alex Brooker then!

Maypole I wondered if it was a Sugababe, then clocked the 'Sweet Melody' clue- I'm not sure which one though...

Dippy Egg I'm now wondering if it's David Tennant, purely because of the Scottish thing, ha

lots of the panel seem convinced that a person's actual name will be written down as a clue.

I've got to say that tonight's reveal of Lorraine Kelly as Owl was almost as good as last week's.

Called tonight's one on Twitter.

Before she opened her mouth on week one I'd called Maypole Kimberley Wyatt so I'm taking Melody (Thornton) as an indirect clue.

Still think Dippy Egg is Will Mellor, but also wondering if the 500 Miles thing is a clue to the Brian Potter/Andy Pipkin thing and pointing to someone involved in that which is giving me minor Paddy McGuinness vibes

Joel's suit looks like he's had an accident with a paint roller.

(apologies if that joke's already been made but I just switched on the TV)

were Maypole's group that famous over here? both a bit meh.
Air Fryer sounded like Dawn French's voice today and now I can't shake that image even though I know it isn't her, but my brain has latched onto it!

I try to avoid social media on this as i like guessing but I went on YouTube to rewatch a couple of songs and someone is insistently commenting on who they think Air Fryer is (not anyone I've ever heard of)

Bit annoying that Maypole is out as she's obviously the best singer left, still I wasn't aware of her before, only knew one of the Pussycat Dolls so guess that's been useful at least.

When they do the "TAKE IT OFF! TAKE IT OFF!" and there's a brief clip of Rita saying "I can't wait to find out who it is!" I feel a brief flush of disgust at myself for watching this show.

Bigfoot has to be stopped.

So obvious that Eiffel Tower was Tiffany and the judges had clearly decided they wouldn't name her, Jonathan Ross even going for Debbie Gibson smh.

I think stopping *spoiler person who we're all bored of now* is tricky because it's an audience vote and the new audience at each recording aren't tired of the schtick as it's new to them. I assume that's how the recording works? Also how did Lorraine not see any of her fellow contestants kicking around during recording, or we're meant to believe she didn't.

It's still a fun programme despite all its flaws and host and panellists though.

When Airfryer went out it was so obvious they had to tell Rita who it was and then feed her a line about how one of the clues worked into that person's identity so she could sound like she knew who it was.

Xpost they are all kept in isolation until showtime, at which point they are chaperoned amongst the other contestants

This is the first series where I haven't really cared much who anyone is. I think the previous ones there have all been ones I'm close to guessing or recognise the voice. It's less fun this time, and/ or there are more people I'm meh about.

fucks sake

I'm half watching the final while doing other things. I actually missed almost the first half an hour because I forgot it was on. I've never had much luck guessing who the singers are but it's not mattered to me really. I was enjoying the series but for some reason tonight I'm not entertained by a singing bigfoot or piranha.

Also it doesn't help that Joel is more annoying than usual.

xp Yeah me too. Though piranha is fine I guess. He's my son's favourite at least.

Probably a good move to cut out the "I can't wear this uniform / without some compromises" from Bigfoot's version of The One And Only.

Joel Dommett is the worst thing about The Masked Singer by a long way.

He really is. Thing is, I've seen him do comedy and be himself and he's genuinely quite funny, but his Temu Stephen Mulhearn schtick is just painful.

this year's shows have been appalling so far. I have no idea why the first one to be unmasked was picked for the show, and postponing that was a really cynical move. there only seems to be a small handful of actual singers.

the first couple of series they seemed to deliberately get people with quite distinctive or interesting voices in some way. I'd rather be trying to work out someone from a 90s indie band than some tv chef or whatever. (that's not a spoiler, just a general musing).

the Christmas one-off was pretty underwhelming too, with only one reveal being mildly amusing.

I guessed the winner of the Christmas special, thought they might have been a decent shout for a competitor in the real thing. I've got reasonable guesses for Bush and Toad and Wolf this year, but I'm not particularly invested at the moment, other than that I'm genuinely curious who Bear is.

It's quite astonishing how they found someone worse than Rita Ora for the panel though.

I prefer Maya at the moment...!
I've got a couple of guesses for Bush and another one but not willing to share for now!

well I'm glad that one was someone I would theoretically know (but would never have guessed) and not some reality tv personality.
I've had various guesses for kingfisher as it's right on the tip of my brain.... don't tell me...

oh ffs just went on YouTube to rewatch week 1 for kingfisher and the top comment says the person I think it must be.

there's a reason they are particularly familiar to me

Ach, I'm going in with my guesses, having failed with Tattoo tonight (thought it was Toyah)

Teeth: Mel Giedroyc
Crab: Gregory Porter
Kingfisher: Harry Hill
Snail: Nadine Coyle
Bear: Kiell Smith-Bynoe
Wolf:.Marti Pellow
Pufferfish: Kimberly Wyatt
Bush: Natalie Cassidy

that was my guess for Teeth as well, but I think I've guessed it for someone in every series so far!

Kingfisher sounded exactly liked Harry Hill at one point, and I have previously thought sounds somewhat like Michael Sheen. Somewhere in the middle, maybe?!

i thought Wolf sounded like William Shatner at one point and now that's all I can hear.


Sophie Willan was my guess for Bush.

i just listened to William Shatner doing Common People, to see if it actually did sound like him, and it doesn't particularly BUT my other half mistakenly thought I was listening to a particular other person, and now we're convinced Wolf is him. It's a good one if so.

Actually, I think I maybe thought Roisin Conway at some point for Bush but went back off it again. Or Kerry Godliman.

Roisin Conaty, stupid autocorrect

yay I got one
Bush is definitely Diane Morgan

I don't know who anyone else is, and this guess is probably wrong, but I got a real sense from tonight's clues that Wolf is Adam Ant.

I did guess Macy Gray, and when she got the ex-vote and walked off, I was convinced.

I'm absolutely 100% convinced that Wolf is Marti Pellow. Sounds like him, moves like him, and the umbrellas in the clue package are clearly a reference to Wet Wet Wet

See, I now think Bush is Sophie Willan (why are we putting guesses in spoilers, they're just guesses)

yeah but I don't always want to see because i like to guess myself!

Yeah, fair enough. I'm pleased I got Teeth right anyway. Bear is really confusing me.

ffs someone put a gag on Joel.

It's movie theme week - and as an aside I think theme weeks all the way back to X Factor are a stupid idea - so Joel is rolling out every terrible impression he, or at least his scriptwriters, can think of.

In summary, I like this show but they make it so. fucking. hard.

loool I have never been so wrong-footed on this show as I was with Kingfisher.

after inadvertently reading YouTube comments saying he was Simon Farnaby, I was totally convinced it was him throughout every song - it sounds exactly like him! the only doubts I had were none of the clues related to anything I could think of, and he's not exactly a household name.

he did the voice of a kids' reading game app that I heard constantly over Covid times, so I was pretty familiar with it.

I'm still taken aback, haha.
As for the other one, well again I'm glad it's someone that a person of my era would be familiar with, but I detested everything they did at the time. They sound crap next to Pufferfish.

Oh, I was 100% certain it was Harry Hill, every intonation and breath as well as the singing voice just screamed him. I'm still not convinced we've not all just been pranked.

i would never have agreed with you about Wolf just going on memory... sounds like a real golden-oldie crooner... but having listened to his recent output you're probably right! and not David Hasselhoff lol

totally wrongfooted again! would've put money on hearing a northern accent there and someone else's intonation!

Yeah, was convinced it was Sophie Willan despite saying otherwise earlier. Was nowhere near Bear.

4/8 from my guesses up thread in the end. Absolutely convinced on Wolf from day one, still can't believe not one of them recognised his voice.

I'm surprised he wasn't guessed at all, but to my ears he sounds properly ancient!

would never have guessed Pufferfish altho I was guessing the Let It Go singer. My husband goes to London regularly so recognised her from posters but they haven't made it down to where I live!

Yeah, was nowhere on Pufferfish, but she has an absolutely terrific voice and definitely deserved the win. Wouldn't have grudged any of them the win - Dressed Crab was obvious but he's just so very good at singing and seemed to be loving it.